


Safe and Sound

by ForeverNerd93



Category: Bleach
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Horrorween 2020, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Not Beta Read, What Have I Done
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:35:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27296527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForeverNerd93/pseuds/ForeverNerd93
Summary: Yuzu didn’t want to believe what she was seeing.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 23





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I cried writing this and I'm not gonna say more.  
>  ~~sorry not sorry~~

Yuzu didn’t want to believe what she was seeing. Didn't want to believe the pain in her chest and the taste of copper on her tongue was real. 

_It couldn't- Ichi-nii would never-_

The monster in front of her had his hair under the mask that looked more like a helmet with fangs for horns, and tears of red down its face. The jagged row of teeth cracked open, a low rumbling growl escaping alongside a ribbon of steam. 

There was a hole in her brother’s chest- _no this is not her brother is can't be this is just a nightmare and she'll wake up and-_

There was a band of silver around Ichi- the monsters neck, symbols glowing a dark red that matched the blood dripping from its claws and-

‘ _Karin!'_

.....

_Ichigo couldn’t move, he couldn’t even scream, but he was forced to watch as his claw-tipped hands tore through his sisters like they were made of tissue paper. His hollow- no he was Zangetsu he was always Zangetsu- screamed in horror and suffocating rage as he- his body pinned Karin’s soul to the floor and took a bite out of her neck while Yuzu watched on in wide-eyed disbelief. He felt himself stand, looking down and seeing the fear on Karin’s face before she shattered into a cloud of glittering dust. From the hole in his chest a wave of warmth- there is bile coating his throat as his eyes burn with tears._

_Ichigo wishes he could vomit._

_He never should have trusted them._

….

Tears slid down her cheeks, the dam giving way, and Yuzu screamed. The chain attached to her chest rattled as she stumbled backward, unable to comprehend what was happening. 

Karin- 

She knew she was saying _something_ around the hysterical sobs and bone-chilling screams. When her back hit a wall, unable to take her eyes away from the monster in her kitchen, that her legs gave out, and found that she couldn’t get up. Paralyzed by fear and overwhelming grief. 

No one was coming for them 

….

The band around his neck burned as Ichigo threw everything he had at it, there was acid down his spine and _he did not care._ Zangetsu joined him, Ichigo could feel the vestiges of shock slip from his zanpakutō’s shoulders as a wildfire of fury took its place.

Ichigo was Zangetsu and Zangetsu was Ichigo, the monoliths of their world vibrating in harmony. For a moment there was a sound like ice beginning to crack. Hope began to fuel their efforts and- 

High-pitched laughter boomed between their ears as they are tossed aside like garbage, their power working against them. Their scream of rage and despair echoed in the silence but there was no one to hear them. They watch in horror as pale silver ribbons wrap around the towers of their soul. They howl in agonized fury as they smell their flesh burn where the symbols are branded into the skin of their neck, and over their spine. 

They freeze at the sound of Yuzu’s screams cuts and the accompanying warmth of a soul consumed- 

A thousand windows shatter, the shards swept away by the rising tide of despair. 

‘ _It’s okay, King. Sleep. I’ll wake you when it’s time._ ’ 

He feels Zangetsu brush his arm, an attempt at comfort just before he disappears. Ichigo meets the black and gold eyes and wordlessly gives his thanks. Gratefully, he sinks into the cold of the abyss, where the Old Man smothered his zanpakutō, and turns his back on reality. 

…..

“Well, that went better than expected.” The tone snide but dripping with glee. 

“Of course it did. I created it after all.” The words like nails on a chalkboard. 

“With this ryoka collared and leashed, the remaining fools of the Gotei will finally bend to the will of the Central 46. They have run wild for long enough and now we have the power to back up our laws.” A rumble of an avalanche, gravely with age. 

“Do you know what happened to its zanpaktou?” A sniff, haughty disdain the very thought of such a being wielding one. 

“It shattered when the binding kido was successfully applied. Are we done questioning my work?” The curl of a sneer in the screech of nails on glass. 

“You have our thanks, Mayuri-taicho. As long as you keep that _thing_ in working order, we grant you visitation to its cage. The kido-corps have delivered it to Muken. A gesture of, shall we say, goodwill.” 

“Yes, your payment and requested supplies have been delivered as you have requested.”

“Yes, yes. Now, if you’re done wasting my time I’ll take my leave.” Mayuri turns away, the rustle of his haori and the lightest tap of woven straw against the smooth floor following him as he leaves. 


	2. High and Dry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this happened.  
> 100% unbetad with unashamed abuse of italics. Zangetsu is a dramatic lil shit.  
> There're ideas for this floating around in the dumpster fire that is my brain.  
> But that might become its own thing.  
> So.  
> This is complete for now. 
> 
> Let me know what ya think!

_Time passes by in flickers of light and waves of emotion from his zanpaktou, Ichigo doesn’t have it in him to care. He turns away and clings to the darkness, taking comfort in the yawning canyon of despair beneath pillars of concrete strength and steely determination._

_Before- before he would have snarled at the thought of his hollow taking over his soul. He had fought in blood and pain for his place on the throne, shaking off weakness like dust from his shoulders._

_Now?_

_Now, he doesn’t think he could weather the storm of agony and grief even if he tried._

* * *

Zangetsu doesn’t fight when the team of onmitsukido comes to collect their new collared pet, remaining placid as they return to the belly of the twelfth division labs. A mere breath after the doors to the senkaimon snap closed his reiatsu presses down on the flies that surround him, he doesn’t bother counting how many of them collapse under the weight of his fury. 

Equipment and the cage they had intended to use to contain him shake as black-red fire lashes out from where he stands. The unfortunate souls closest to him are crushed, unable to scream as skulls and ribs and spines snap. 

The seals burned into his skin flare to life as he _pushes -in a way Ichigo couldn’t with horror and despair choking him as he watched-_ one by one they splinter like glass and leave bloody outlines where they had once been. The pain is easily pushed to the side, it will heal in time. 

_They dare think they have controlled_ **him** _._ ****

They have taken his fangs, locked them in a box. But they have forgotten- 

_We were born with claws and horns and streaks of blood painting our skin. We are more than the blade you think you can use to control us, and for that, we will burn everything you hold dear._

Somehow, the knowledge of this form- the pinnacle of only half of their potential- made it into the hands of- _traitors_. Zangetsu suspects it was that pathetic quincy or the healer. 

Their lives are forfeit.

He will consume them as _he was forced to consume-_

One of the Captains arrives and _finally-_

He turns to face the threat, claw-tipped fingers briefly curl inward, he may not need the midnight black blades in his hands to shred their enemies apart, but it does not stop the frission of _wrong_ as it dances along his arms. 

It’s the blonde, he remembers him trying to help, once. Remembers the feeling of _pack_ but not-quite-kin. They hadn’t been born the way he was, woven into every strand of their Master’s soul. 

But- they had helped Ichigo when the maelstrom of instinct and rage had slipped out of his tenuous control while drowning under the boot of that _imposter._

_He screamed until he couldn’t, threw his rage at the box he was trapped in. Betrayal was a wildfire in his chest, he didn’t_ **understand**. _They were supposed to be_ **partners** , _working in tandem to guide their boy as he stumbled into the world he was not ready for. He embraced the animalistic rage of his hollow instincts, it made his new reality easier to stomach._

The Captain- _Shinji his name is Shinji_ \- is speaking, one hand on his zanpaktou the other relaxed at his side, but to Zangetsu they mean nothing, words will not bring back Ichigo’s sisters. He does not care if the bond forged in that warehouse survives after he burns Seirertei to the ground. 

His rage, briefly quelled by the appearance of what was once an ally, ignites once more. His bone-white mask cracks open, steam drifting between the canyon of jagged teeth as he releases a low growl. 

It’s the only warning Shinji will get from him. 

He knows there is blood splatter across the face, rivulets painting his chin, how the gold of his eyes glow with malice and hunger. It is time to replace the blood of his sisters with that of the Shinigami who thought it wise to betray Ichigo. 

Zangetsu tips his head back, cero charging between his horns, and roars a challenge into the sky as dirt and stone and ash crumble around him in a blinding flash of red. 

_They took his sisters, stole the light from Ichigo’s world-_ **ripped out his heart and believed themselves superior** _\- there was nothing more important than protecting them._

_Now, now he will paint the ground with their flesh, rip and tear and consume until there is no more._

_He will leave their ivory towers in ruin._

  
After all, Ichigo is **his** , there is nothing Zangetsu wouldn’t do to protect him. 


End file.
